As mentioned previously, we have been downsizing for years. In fact, you could argue that we’ve been struggling to downsize ever since we got married.
Spousal Unit & I were a bit older when we got married (our ages averaged to 30), and we each had our own places with plenty of stuff. In fact, we estimate that we gave away enough duplicates after we were married to basically furnish a one-bedroom apartment. But we’ve struggled to get rid of certain things, especially books, papers, photos, and sentimental items.
Due to my poor health, last year we moved to Florida, which means we now live in hurricane evacuation territory. Somehow this has sharpened our focus and strengthened our resolve like nothing else has ever done.
We know that we live with the risk that a hurricane could destroy nearly all that we have. And that has made our perspectives drastically shift. First of all, we acknowledge that everything we own is temporary. I think people tend to ignore that fact in day-to-day life. But we are now holding our possessions with a much lighter grasp.
Secondly, we are much less concerned about buying just the right version of a thing for our home – it may not last even if we buy the deluxe model. We’re no longer buying for durability (as much); we’re buying good enough function, good value, knowing we might have to replace it much sooner than we’d hope. Most importantly, we have an evacuation plan that consists of loading up the most essential things into our vehicles and travel trailer and hitting the road.
Thus, we are beginning to look at everything we own and asking “Would this go with us in an evacuation?” This tends to lead to the follow-on question, “If not, why are we keeping it?”
Now, of course, there are things which would not go with us that still contribute to our quality of life here (spare bedding, outdoor furniture, etc.). We intend to keep those “nice extras,” but we realize that they might be destroyed by a storm and then we would need to decide whether or not to replace them.
Another factor that has influenced us to finally get rid of things is the stark realization that no one will want our things when we’re gone. We don’t have children, so things like yearbooks or photo albums will mean little to anyone once we’re gone. [Not to mention that younger generations would probably rather have digital images than photo albums anyway.] But even if we *had* children, they probably wouldn’t want most of our stuff anyway, as this article in Forbes points out.
Realizing that no one will want our stuff when we’re gone has helped us to release emotional ties to some of our stuff – we’re no longer holding on to “family heirlooms” because “someone might want them someday.”
And, since this house is much smaller than our previous house [in fact, it’s the smallest house either of us has ever owned], we’re tired of trying to make all the stuff fit. We’re tired of tripping over stuff. The clutter is stressing us out. So we’re finally facing all the stuff we’ve been hauling around for decades and ruthlessly eliminating the extraneous.
Of course, we’ve bought a few new things since we arrived. We updated our scuba gear, for example, and bought a fishing kayak. We hope to fine tune our possessions, so that they support our interests without weighing us down.
After all, even though we can haul the essentials with us when we hurricane evac, in the end we can’t take it with us to the afterlife.
And, having dealt with the estates of several of our parents already, we don’t want to burden our loved ones with a bunch of stuff to deal with when we die. To put it in military terms, we need to police our gear, get our affairs in order, and make sure everything is shipshape.
